BPCL, Rajmata Jijau win Matoshree Chashak tourney

Mumbai, Dec 27 (UNI) Bharat Petroleum and Rajmata Jijau (Pune) in the men and women sections respectively were crowned champions scoring convincing wins in the finals of the Matoshree Chashak State Level Kabaddi Tournament here today.

Bharat Petroleum beat Bank of India 30-17 and Rajmata Jijau got the better of Ankur by a 25-17 margin.

The men's final had promised a lot with the bankers staging a grand recovery but misfortune struck when their star performer Vijay Jadhav injured himself during a struggle and had to be carried off. Vijay was in terrific form as he brought his team back into contention from 1-10 down to 13-16 with about a minute left for the break. The hefty, well-built veteran of many a battle was in tears as he left the field.

Rajmata had in their earlier wins over established outfits like Suvarna Yug (Pune) and Shivshakti (Mumbai) had staked a claim for the title and they proved their supporters right by quelling the challenge of Ankur after some initial resistance.

Rajmata had a strategy for the tall and agile Ankur raider Savita Chavan and once it succeeded it was smooth sailing for the Pune outfit. The strategy was effected to the 'T' by the small built catching duo of Kishori Shinde and Manasi Kapse. While the latter excelled with ankleholds the former employed frontal blocks to trap rival raiders.

The Pune girls were not at their best as raiders Usha Bansode and Archana Shinde played a little below par and at one stage Ankur came close at 6-8 and had a chance. But Kishori turned the tide with a good raid and prevented Ankur from scoring a 'lona'.

Rajmata then gradually pulled away from 11-7 at the break to 20-9 as they gave a 'lona' to the opponents. The writing was on the wall and both teams just went through to complete the formalities.

For BPCL, the raiding of Ashish Mhatre helped them establish control right from the beginning. He got four opponents out as they tried to catch him unsuccessfully. Mhatre with the help of Deepak Zhanzot played an important role in defence too. He trapped Vijay Jadhav and then helped wipe out the bankers for the first 'lona' and a lead of 10-1 at that stage.

Back at full strength the bankers retaliated as Vijay claimed seven points in two raids. He got Nilesh Shinde, Deepak and Nitin More out and then claimed the remaining two in the next sortie to give a 'lona' to BPCL. The crowd erupted sensing a fight but to their dismay Vijay fell on his side and injured his collar bone.

The crowd egged on Vijay as he got up only to see tears in his eyes on not being able to take further part in the match. It was a sad end to a promising fightback.

The winners of both the sections went home richer by Rs 35,000 and the runners-up got Rs 25,000 each in this Rs 1.75 lakhs prize money tournament organized by Worli Vidhansabha Kshetra under the leadership of Harish Worlikar.

The best players of the tournament Usha Bansode (Rajmata) and Ashish Mhatre (BPCL) were presented a handycam and DVD set while television sets were presented to the following: Best catchers: Vaibhav Kale (WR) and Mohini Kapse (Rajmata); Best Raiders: Savita Chavan (Ankur) and Vijay Jadhav (BOI).